Just Breathe
by fatnakedkitten
Summary: I didn't like the season 3 finale. So I wrote my own. Prequel to Wicked Way.


Just Breathe

Disclaimer: I do not own or claim to own Once Upon A Time or it's characters, themes, or settings.

A/N: There are so many things I need to get done, but instead I'm writing. And it feels good to be writing something, but the guilt of procrastination is strong... .

A/N2: Elsa didn't come to the present with Emma and the idiot pirate, they didn't bring Marian with them, so OQ is good, the Charmings named their baby something else.

Storybrooke Hospital, about a week after Emma and Hook returned from the past...

Surreal. Things for Emma Swan were feeling very _surreal_. Sure, she had thought about it since it happened, but she was told it wasn't possible. It shouldn't have been. It was one of the Laws of Magic. You can't bring people back from the dead.

_Dead is dead_.

She just didn't understand how they had pulled it off, but she wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. And just when she thought she'd seen it all, here she was, in the glassed in room of Storybrooke's small hospital, with Neal Cassidy in the bed, unconsious, but _alive_.

Things for her over the past week had been an emotionally stressful blur. There was a lot of research with Belle, lengthy discussions with the Blue Fairy, and heated arguments with Gold over wheather it was best for them to attempt to bring Neal back or not. Gold had argued the same thing that Emma had told him before she fell back through the portal to come to the present. Neal died a hero, he'd had a heroes death, in the arms of the two people he loved most in all the realms, and they should honor his memory and let him rest. Emma had argued back constantly that Neal had gotten her back home to her family so many times, and she owed it to him to at least try to return the favor. Not surprisingly, Regina had been on Gold's side, what with her experiances with her first love, Daniel, and the mess it had been when he had been brought back. Surprisingly, though, Snow had also been on Gold's side. Charming had been on Emma's side, along with Belle and Robin, as Neal's friend his opinion mattered to her, but all three were adament that she should only try once, and if no results yielded, she should let it be.

As it was, they had found a tricky spell, one that could only be performed by light magic, that the Blue Fairy had been confident about. The only catch was that the spell would lift the effects of the dark magic that had traded Neal's life for the Dark One's and bring him back, but with Neal's body being in the ground for so long and inactive for such a length of time, even though Regina had magically preserved his body, he would need immediate medical attention to get all of his bodily functions to start working, and be rushed to the hospital to keep him working right, and make sure he stayed alive.

Regina and Gold had mixed up the potion they needed, with the Blue Fairy keeping watch to make sure it was done right. Once that was finished, Neal's body had to be exumed. The spell was performed by Emma herself, using the wand she had used to open the time portal to focus and amplify her magic, with Regina, Gold, and the Blue Fairy standing close by should anything go wrong. The Charmings, Henry, Belle, and Robin were standing a ways away for moral support. Robin had left Roland in the care of his Merry Men, and Ruby was more than willing to watch her nephew for as long as needed while they were attempting such tricky magic. Whale had a team of emergency responders meet them at the grave site, should they be needed, while he waited at the hospital for them with another team of doctors. Once Emma had successfully and correctly performed the spell, she waited with anticipation, and at the first sighn of life from Neal, the medical team moved quickly to rush him to the hospital, where he was received by Whale and his team, working fast to hook him up to life support machines and stuck needles in his veins to get his blood flowing and heart pumping and lungs breathing.

After a few hours, Neal had started choking on his breathing tube, signaling that his lungs had started working on their own. Slowly, they had released him from the machines that were hooked to him, each removed as his body took over for them, making them unnecessary, until all that was left was the mandatory I.V. of fluids. Emma had stayed where she could see Neal at all times, feeling like if she left him for a minute that she would lose him again. It was about midnight when Whale finally came to her and everyone waiting, and told them that if he made it through the night that he would live. Slowly, everyone started to disperse. The Charmings left first, wanting to get back to their baby, but gave their best wishes. Regina and Robin left next, taking Henry with them, who had fallen asleep on a waiting chair a few hours before, to pick up Roland and go back to Regina's. Belle was finally able to take Gold home, his anticipation and worry grating on Emma's already frayed nerves, with Emma's promise to call them if anything happened. Inevitably, Hook was the only one left standing beside Emma as she watched Neal sleeping throught the glass.

"Swan, we need to talk." Hook said, eyes boring into Emma.

"About what? There's nothing to talk about." Emma said, not looking at him.

"Yes, there is. Before Neal awakens, we need to talk about _us_." Hook said, with an emphasis on the 'us' part.

"There is no "us", and you need to get something straight, right now." Emma said harshly, and turned to look at Hook, with anger in her voice and eyes and her jaw clenched. "There is nothing between us, there never will be, and you need to stop trying to kid yourself into thinking there is. We are _just friends_, and that is all we will be. If you have a problem with it, you know where the door is." Emma said and turned back to watch Neal again.

"So, you would take Neal back, even though he walked out on you and broke you, but you won't even give me a chance?" Hook said, unbelievingly, with a look of hurt and confusion on his face.

"You don't know what happened that night," Emma said angrily, turning back to Hook, "and you have no right to talk about it, because you have no idea what we've been through, and you obviously don't know me as much as you think you do, or you would have taken a hint by now that I'm not interested in you." Emma said, but this time she kept eye contact with Hook, letting him know how serious she was. After a minute of silence, Hook wordlessly turned and left Emma alone. Whale, who had witnessed the exchange from the end of the hall, walked over to Emma quietly, and informed her that she could sit and wait in Neal's room if she wasn't going to leave, and then headed in the direction of the vending machines.

Emma walked silently into Neal's room, watching his motionless face, and walked over to the foot of his bed. She hesitantly reached a hand out to squeeze his right foot, above the multiple layers of blankets, and was a bit shocked to find that he radiated heat, but recovered quickly, taking it as it was. After a second, still watching his face for a sign that he registered her presense, she let her hand travel down his foot and up his calf a bit, giving his leg another squeeze. When that yielded no response, she grabbed his hand with her other and squeezed, jumping a little when his hand reflexively squeezed back. Suddenly all choked up, Emma layed her forehead on Neal's, and carressed his cheek with her free hand, and brought his hand she was holding up to her chest, and let out a few broken sobs and let flow the tears she'd been holding in for awhile.

"Emma..." she jerked upright when she heard her name come from Neal, and saw that he had awakened, finally, and was watching her with the saddest look in his eyes. The saddest look she'd ever seen. "Why are you crying?" He asked worriedly.

"You were dead." Emma said simply.

"How am I not?" He asked, looking around the room in confusion.

"It wasn't easy, and I don't know how, but we did some magic and some medicine and here you are." Emma said, not wanting to explain in detail, she would leave that to someone else.

"Emma, I died." Neal said, looking back at Emma, meeting her gaze, "I died for you. For Henry, my father, everyone. I died so you could be happy, so you could have a home, and find Tallahassee. Why am I alive? I should be dead!" Neal said in a shaky voice.

"You idiot. Tallahassee is our thing. How could you _possibly_ expect me to share it with someone else? It's you and me, or just me." Emma said, not stopping the tears or the shaking in her voice.

"Emma, you don't understand, that was my redemption. That was me making things right with you. It was my atonement. For all the times I let you down." Neal said, now with tears slowly rolling down his age worn face, letting all the years of guilt and regret over that night, nearly thirteen years ago, when he let the closest thing to a home and family he'd had get ripped away from him by fate.

"You got me home. To my parents. You gave me Henry. Without you, I would still be out there somewhere, looking for a home. You gave me a home. You don't owe me anything, and you have _never_ let me down." Emma said sternly, squeezing both of his hands in hers.

"I let you go to prison, Emma, and you had to go through pregnancy with Henry on your own." Neal said, not able to look Emma in the eye.

"Hey, look at me. Look at me." Emma said and waited for Neal to meet her eye before she continued. "There is no way you could have known about Henry. I didn't even know about him until I was already in a cell in Phoenix. You can't blame yourself for making the best of an impossible situation. And to tell the truth, I forgave you as soon as that cop cuffed me. If I had been in your position, I would have made the same call." Emma said, wiping her hands over Neal's tear stained face, before wiping at her own face.

"I love you, Emma." Neal said, watching Emma closely.

"I love you, too." Emma said after a moment, and locked her eyes with his, again.

After a minute, she took off her jacket and threw it on the chair by the wall, and kicked off her boots. Neal scooted over to make room, and pulled the blankets aside so Emma could lay next to him on the bed. Emma layed down next to Neal, and he wrapped the blankets tightly around the two of them and he pulled her as close as he could and wrapped his arms around her. Emma snuggled into his chest, and placed her hand on his chest, so she could feel his heart beating in his chest, and wrapped her other arm around his waste, so she could feel his ribcage expanding as he breathed in and out, and closed her eyes as exhaustion finally seeped in. Neal nuzzled his face into Emma's hair, breathing in her scent, not wanting to forget it any time soon, and closed his eyes, reveling in the feeling of having Emma back in his arms. After awhile he heard a sniffle come from Emma. He pulled away slightly to look at her face, but there was a smile where he expected a frown.

"Emma, are you okay?" Neal asked, a bit concerned, but Emma just snuggled closer.

"Just breathe, and I'll be fine." Emma said, and Neal moved back into his cuddle position, and soon Emma had fallen asleep in his arms, like she used to when they were young and would bundle up in the back seat of the bug on cold winter nights, and things felt right again.

A/N: A bit longer than expected, but whatever. It's two in the morning, and this is going up, spelling and grammer mistakes and all.

-fnk


End file.
